Doo-bee, Doo-Bee, Doo

by admin on September 26, 2013

I live in a country setting and occasionally take my dog on a visit to my daughter who lives in town. We have walked our dogs together around her neighborhood. At home I clean up after my dog and dispose of it in my own trashcan. While daughter and I were walking my dog went and I bagged it of course. A small distance away was a trashcan at the curb and it had not been emptied yet. I casually dropped my dirty bag into the can and continued on with my walk. My daughter was horrified that I would use someone else’s can even if it was at the curb. I thought there was nothing wrong with not wanting to carry you know what for quite awhile to put it in her trashcan. Was I wrong? 0923-13

As long as your bag of dog doo is securely tied in such a way as to not splat all over the inside of the neighbor’s trash can thus requiring them to clean it, I don’t see what the problem is. Trash cans are for trash. And I am sure the neighbors would prefer that you dispose of the bag in a receptacle designed for that purpose rather than what this neighbor did:

I should mention that I live in central Texas where my garage (where the cans are stored) is HOT HOT HOT. You can imagine what that does to the smell of what’s in the bin. Keep your smell garbage out of my cans, man!

In my city there are strict regulations on how pet waste is to be disposed of. I have actually been fined because some selfish dog walkers dumped their dog’s biological waste into my trash recepticle. Continual violations result in the city refusing to pick up your trash. It has gotten to the point where I rush my trash out at the very last minute just to avoid those fines…fines levied on animal waste from an animal I do not even own!

My opinion is….if you have a dog, it is your responsibility to take their waste home and properly dispose of it! If you for some inexplicable reason are unwilling to do that, get another type of pet! Or don’t walk you dog outside of your own premises. Your dog’s feces are not my responsibility!!! My cat uses its litter box and causes me absolutely no problems with disposal. Some of my neighbors are so upset to the point of setting up their own hidden cameras to catch the perpetrators. I think I will do that as well.

Maybe it is because I am a “cat person”, but some dog owners are the most selfish, irresponsible, entitled people I have ever encountered. They know our city’s regulations – they just do not care about anything other than their dog’s freedom to eliminate wherever it chooses.

I think we are all getting confused as to USA trash collection and UK. In the US most places have 2 times a week pick up. Almost every place I have visited has automatic trash pick up….ie the trash man does not get out of the car. It is not an issue in my part of the US for someone to do that. Here there are no city trash cans in a neighborhood to use. If it is trash day…why not? Most people allow their neighbors to put their overflow into their bin. Unless you are in NYC or some other trash nazi place it is no big deal to do that….don’t feel bad. If someone is going to be mad that there is dog poop in their trashcan….well I am at a loss….you really have nothing better to complain about?

You really shouldn’t throw stuff away in a strange trash can if it causes a problem for someone else. The poop might end up sitting in the can for a couple of days, and it isn’t fair to impose dog waste on someone who doesn’t have a pet.

There are other situations in which a person should be weary about throwing their trash away.

My friends both worked as waitresses, and I learned from them that you should try not to throw away liquids in a trash can. In some situation this can cause the bag to degrade, and tear open when an unwitting worker goes into the can for the bag.

I’ve seen any number of dog walkers dropping their bagged dog-doo in my trashcan when it’s at the curb but before pickup. We have the kind of trashcan that gets hoisted and dumped entire, so I don’t mind.
If it happened regularly when the can is by my house, and it’s not trash day, I’d be tempted to load the thing with springy snakes. (I just had an idea of how to do it, too!)

The dog walkers I really resent are the ones who don’t pick up after their dogs. UGh!

I absolutely disagree! Suppose the trash has just been picked up, you put your dog crap in it, now that dog crap sits in MY garage all week. (This has happened to me with a half-eaten ham sandwich.) If it’s not yours, you have no business using it, no matter how convenient it would be for YOU.

You could make the same argument for all kinds of theft: bikes are for riding; I don’t feel like walking; I’ll just steal someone else’s bike! Driveways are for parking; I can’t find anyplace to park; I’ll just park in someone else’s driveway!

I would err on the side of not putting anything in someone else’s trash can, because it’s not mine and you never know how people may react. (Aside to “A,” above, I would be nervous, too, about putting two full bags of my garbage into someone else’s nearly empty can.) At work, I don’t even drop a tissue or other trash into a co-worker’s wastebasket without asking first. Some of my co-workers empty their own (for instance, because the cleaning people are locked out of that office in the evening), and perhaps they wouldn’t want to potentially handle trash they didn’t produce.

If the little bag doesn’t get dumped out and left in the can because it slid in, or worse, popped out and left on the ground, eww. And there always seems to be something that will come along and tear that bag open and leave a smeared mess.

I never lived in a place with mandatory trash separating but have visited friends that do (they have a green, a brown, and a tan toters of different sizes with wheels) and dog poo may have to go in a specific one. If you didn’t put it in the correct one then you may have caused the owner of the cans an issue.

Stopping to open a can, open an inner bag, then tuck your gift in and relid isn’t an option either.

Responsible pet owners clean up after themselves. Yes, you take it home and deal with it.

As for the video, I noticed the guy missed the one he tossed at the other tree and the police found it. After two weeks plus (I think I counted 15 tosses in about 3 weeks) it would stink… and I would’ve called the authorities after the third toss had I owned the property and had the cam. Three is repeat confirmed.

I had issue where I live now with former neighbor, they had a rather less than stellar dog that decided my front yard was where it could dump (and have diahrrea on a regular basis) all over. In the morning the dog would almost break a leg to get over there to dump, and one day the guy laughed and asked me if I tossed food on my lawn (in all seriousness) as he said that dog couldn’t WAIT to get over there when he let him out. I told him three times with not pleased-ness that his dog ran over there to cra… on my lawn and leave me messes. He laughed and repeated the I must be throwing food on the lawn, until the third repeat. I built a serious temporary fence between us and enclosed my front yard preparing for Halloween…I had plantings and soft spots in front yard and kids running through there in the dark would be a lawsuit so I fenced it seriously (dogproof) and put lights on it and decorated inside. The first day that dog ran over there and could NOT get into his preferred area… he tried to dig the fence. So… he ran the other direction and took the diahrrea to a neighbor a few the other direction. She shot at the dog with a .44 (her husband’s legally owned pistol) and almost got the dog. I left my fence up into January, changing the Halloween orange and purple lights to Christmas lights… when it had to come down the dog was back. In the spring the granddaughter was toddling and being babysat a lot, so I took the dog doo I was had been gifted with again (what wasn’t runny-4 months worth) and begin tossing back under his granddaughter’s favorite pine tree to play under. Dog finally got confined to his own backyard….. passive aggressive but talking to him outright hadn’t gotten any results, and taking it to our local law enforcement wouldn’t have gotten anything either.

To @jd (#14)- I feel your pain. My home is on the corner lot as you enter/exit our subdivision. People are always throwing out trash- fast food bags, beer cans, plastic shrink wrap, etc., and it end up in my yard or the ditch. I spend a good 1/2 hour each weekend, picking up people’s trash because they are too lazy to take it home and throw it away. If you don’t have one, I suggest purchasing one of those E-Z Reach grabbing tools ($15.00 at Tractor Supply Co). No bending over and no touching other people’s trash. Just pick up, throw in a wheelbarrow and off to the burning barrel! 🙂

I think I would mind if someone threw their trash, particularly dog poo, in my trash bin. It seems inconsiderate, especially to people who don’t have dogs and may end up having to remove it if the garbage collectors don’t empty it.

Re this comment: ” Depending on their location, the trash can may also not be “theirs.” In my current city, trash cans for private homes are the property of the city sanitation office. I have no problem using my neighbor’s trash can if it is trash day, it is already out by the curb, and the trash has not been picked up. Since I walk past their can on the way to the bus stop instead of my own, if I’m carrying a paper towel or something, in it goes.”

I have to say I find that an appalling attitude. I lease my bin from my city and it dwells near my back door except for trash day; I have had it for years and don’t want it smelling like anything other than what I, as the person who is paying the weekly fee, choose to deposit in it. It’s not for anyone else to decide whether or not that’s a policy they agree with, because for the time being it’s my bin. I lease a modem from the cable company too; does that make it OK to park in front of my house and try to pirate my Internet access?

Carry your dogs’ feces and other garbage back to your own trash bin, period. Mine is not there for your use any more than any other amenity of my house or yard.

I have three dogs. I would never put their waste into another person’s trash bin nor would I want someone to throw their dog’s waste into my trash bin.

What if the bag breaks? Then someone has to clean my dog’s crap out of their can if I would put a bag into their can. What if they don’t even have a dog? Why should they have to deal with my dog’s crap?

And, with three dogs, I have enough crap to deal with. I don’t want to deal with another dog’s crap. And I package our crap carefully, so that it does not spill into our trash can. I don’t want to have to deal with some lazy putz who is not as careful as we are and clean their dog’s crap from our can.

You chose to get a dog. You choose to walk your dog. Therefore, you carry your dog’s poo and dispose of it into your own trash can.

Also, in my area of The United States, I don’t know how one picks up trash without getting out of the truck. Ours collect the bins from the side of the road and it gets hoisted into the truck. There are also still trash man who must empty the bins themselves into their type of truck.

I wouldn’t mind, but when the bins are collected in my city, they are emptied upside down into the truck. If it was a case of the bin collectors picking up individual bags, and there was a chance that the dog poo would be missed and allowed to sit there for weeks, then I’d be annoyed.

I would much prefer dog poo to be put in a bin – any bin – than left on the ground! I’m one of those people who always seems to step in it when it’s left out. Well done, OP, on being a considerate dog owner.

CJ, I’m in the USA – suburbs, even – and we have private trash pick-up. They get out of the vehicle and manually empty the cans, one bag at a time. They do not dump the entire can. If there is a loose item, sometimes it is picked up and sometimes it isn’t. Thankfully, I live in a weird corner where few people walk their dogs, so I don’t see this particular act. But I do find random stuff – wrappers, mostly – stuck in my trash can because it was put in the can loose.

Also, the trash pick-up is very early in the morning, so the can sits empty until I get home from work. If someone drops something in and it rains, it gets stuck to the can. It’s a PITA when it’s a wrapper. I’d hate to think of the horror show if it was a dog poop bag!

My previous home also had private trash pick-up, set up by the HOA. The problem there was people not even bothering to pick up after their dog at all. Putting it in someone else’s bin is definitely a step up from that!

The United States is so big and with so many different climates, laws, and subcultures that it is very difficult to make broad declarations about how the entire US works with something local like trash pick-up.

I think I’ve posted this before, but it’s always worth mentioning it again.

Natural and Safe Animal Deterrent
* Get a bottle of vodka. Good stuff if you want some too, rotgut otherwise.
* Buy a few habenero peppers and cheesecloth.
* Using gloves, slice up the peppers and put everything (seeds and all) in the cheesecloth.
* Stick the bundle in the bottle of vodka and let sit for a few weeks.
* Put in a spray bottle, spray trouble spots. (And maybe make yourself a drink).
It won’t hurt plants or animals, but any animal that sniffs a lot will be shooed away. You’ll need to periodically re-apply.

In my trash can beats the heck out of loose in the ditch beside the road. Your dog poop can’t be any worse than the used cat litter I put in there.

I have the same informal agreement with my neighbors someone else mentioned – if they have too much trash they can put the excess in my trash can and I can do the same when Ineed to.

I’m in the US and only have trash pick up once/week. We moved a lot when I was a kid. The only place we had pick up twice/week was in the nearly-tropical Gulf Coast, near New Orleans. I think that was for insect control and may be common only in that sort of climet.

One of the main reasons I do not want a dog is because I do not want to, ever, deal with dog poo. As a home owner I do have to deal with my garbage cans (which I do own). I should not have to deal with someone elses dog poo due to them being too lazy to carry it. Part of the responsibility of owning a dog is being in charge of its excrement, it is not ok to push that responsibility onto other people who did not sign up it.

My goodness — you British certainly have strict garbage rules!
Here in the US garbage rules vary from community to community. While I’ve heard of people’s collection service being cut off for various reasons, and of the garbage collectors refusing to pick something up because it wasn’t right, I’ve never heard of anyone being fined for not sorting their garbage correctly.
As for the issue of depositing pet waste in someone else’s cans, while it’s not a problem where I live I would not object as long as the trash can was at the curb. Not sure I’d like the idea of anyone actually coming into my yard to drop something in my trash can.

Gonna take the Admin’s side on this one. Everyone complaining about it just makes me laugh.

There’s a lot of little nuances that make this a rude thing or not. The poor woman who could get fined for her trash – now that is beyond rude. If someone doesn’t know, then okay, cut them some slack and politely let them know the what’s-up. If I have visitors, I’m not sure discussing our garbage company’s policies is going to be top priority on my mind. But for the people that live there, know about the rule, and still drop their trash in her bin? That’s just mean spirited. I’d be tempted to get their names and report them. If the neighborhood is that stuffy about trash, I bet they wouldn’t take nicely to someone else breaking that rule and causing the home owner strife.

I would never dispose of doggy bags in someone else’s trash if I had to go up onto their property to do it or if there were any particular rules that I know would get them busted. Our dog is old, so we can’t walk him far, and this really isn’t a problem anymore. We either walk him around the block or just at the park, so my trashcan/public trashcan isn’t far off. But we used to WALK our dog – long, long walks that were, yes, over 2 or 3 miles because he loved it. I’m pretty sure most people would not want to talk to me if I am holding a bag of dog-poop. If the other comments are any indication, it’s not the most appealing thing in the world.

I find most dog owners to be incredibly personable and kind (if their dogs are well behaved). I’d much rather chat with a dog owner than someone who hates dogs. I just find the dog-loving people more kind, generous, charitable, chatty, and overall friendly than those who don’t like dogs.

In the UK, some councils are stricter than others – some people have been fined because they’ve overfilled their refuse bin or left extra bags by the side of the bin. Situations like this usually raise a big hoohah in the Red-tops (Cheaper end newspapers with gossipy content – The Sun, The Mirror etc) and righteous indignation in the Daily Mail.

Personally I’ve not seen it happen in my local area, although it has to be said this type of pettiness seems to be more prevalent in the Midlands (which is probably more to do with the entitlement culture of the unionised lot). If you black-bag and tie your rubbish bags closed before they go in the bin, no inspector is going to look beyond that, and in the summer months I usually double bag to avoid too many maggots. We have a compost bin too which helps as the majority of non-meat, non-carb, non-dairy food waste goes into the composter which cuts down the amount of rotting matter in the bin (and gives our veg patch a boost – the bean and butternut squash crops were excellent this year!). They tend to be pickier about recyclables as some areas will take some types of plastic and others won’t. Personally I can’t be bothered to faff with it – if the packaging has the recyclable symbol, it goes in my green bin, I let the sorting centre worry about things they choose not to recycle. The only exception is foam meat trays – I’m pretty sure no-where recycles those.

Some areas have glass collections too although sadly my area doesn’t so they sit in a box in our outhouse until we have a boot full of rubbish for the tip then I spend half an hour ditching my wine bottles and being judged by passers by for my bulging bottle-filled box lol.

Personally, regardless of ownership of the bins, I think it is inappropriate to put stinky, unsanitary dog waste into a domestic bin unless you own said bin and are aware that such waste is permitted. It seems to me that the many variants and ranges of restrictions on US garbage collection in different areas would make this a very difficult situation to gauge and I think unless you know the rules for sure, it is best to refrain.

As an aside, some of you have expressed the thoughts that UK rubbish collection is complex – I have to say that the sheer variety of collections and rules in the US makes it infinitely more so than the UK – in the UK domestic rubbish collection is handled by councils and is part of the council tax you pay – most of the ‘rules’ are variations on a single theme so it isn’t too hard to adjust to local variance. Businesses can pay private collection services and there are a wide variety of schemes depending on the business type

OP here, well I caused a big stink didn’t I? LOL. My doggie bag was tied properly. The trash had not been collected yet. It was a garbage tote owned by the trash company and not cleaned by the home owner. The garbage man empties the entire contents into the truck and the lift shakes the can to make sure it is empty. I was quite away from my daughter’s house and no there are no public trash cans around. So I guess it is still 50 50 on right or wrong.

Under those circumstances, Lisa Marie, I’d say you didn’t do anything wrong. But only under those circumstances.

I think the point we can take away from this is that garbage collection varies so much that you really need to know the finer points of the collection before doing something like this. Unless you know it’s a collection like what the OP has, better to err on the side of caution.

@smarlo
“why would you keep your stinky trash cans in the garage? ick.”

Because in some areas it may be the rule or in areas like mine if you don’t animals knock them over to have a snack. I’ve woken up to garbage strewn across the lawn. Anyone who has had to deal with the little furry bandits knows that even a bungee cord is no match for these guys. Inside is the only safe place and even then sometimes it’s not…..they will try anything to get in there.

@Lisa Marie: thank you for the update. The right or wrong was totally based on a lot of contingencies, and thanks for clearing them off.
It does seem that it is still 50:50. I have often seen residential streets where there is no trash can in the whole street (logistics often dictate not to have trash can when the street is lined up with houses; after all, who wants to be the unfortunate resident of the house right next to a community trash can?).

But on the other hand, I personally am not a fan of anyone throwing trash in my trash cans, even if the cans are provided by the trash company (and we pay the company to provide them!). There are several reasons; the main one is that not everyone is cognizant like the OP, and puts the trash nicely tied in a bag. Secondly, there is a possibility of little bags falling off while taking the trash, and then the residents will have to deal with them. Or like someone else said, what if the dog-poop bag broke because of the other things in the trash bin, and smeared dog poop all over the walls of the trash bin? Then the residents are left with cleaning it up.

I have a separate small, lidded trashcan for my own dog’s poo. I don’t put my dog’s poo in my trashcan and I certainly wouldn’t want a stranger to do it, either. Like many others said, the bag can break or the smell can linger. It never occurred to me to toss my dog’s waste into someone else’s trashcan, either.

Our trash had just been picked up and a woman walked by and dropped her bag of dog poo into our empty trash can. So am I supposed to store her dog poop for a week? I don’t mind if the can is full, but at least be polite enough to not drop it into an empty can to ‘fester’ for a week.
I walk our dog and pick up after him. It’s not fun to carry a bag of waste, so I do watch for a trash can, but not an empty one.

Adding to my comment, yes, we owned a dog for almost 11 years, and we always bagged and carried her deposits and dealt with them ourselves at home UNLESS we could put them in the dogpark can when we took her there.

Condolences, Susan (#81) yeah that is a real frosting-on-the-cake bit. Hope there was something you could do other than have it sit around for a week.

I was out walking my puppy about two weeks ago and took a nasty fall. Nasty as in I managed to fracture my nose – hairline fracture – and my right hand is bruised all to heck and I can’t use the last two fingers to type. The very nice neighbor whose house I fell outside of helped me get home and even asked if she wanted me to throw away the bag. I said no thank you, because it is my responsibility to take care of my own dog’s waste, and threw it away in my own manner before going to the ER.

In other words, yes, OP, I do think that you were rude to do that. It’s not your property, even if they are at the curb and owned by the city, and therefore you need the okay from the owner of the house to throw stuff away in their bin. This is from someone in a suburb of Chicago and we have the same sort of garbage truck pickup with the arm thing.

I’m not sure about America, but in Perth, the rubbish bins belong to the Local Council (or Shire), therefore, rubbish can be thrown into any of the bins awaiting empyting by council workers.
But I agree with Admin, as long as the rubbish is tied up and doesn’t make a mess, it can be disposed of in any bin.

I understand that a couple of hundred years ago, tanners used dog poo in their trade, for treating leather. They called it “pure”, and paid street kids to go around collecting it for them. (I owe this informational gem to Diana Gabaldon’s time-travel novels.) One could feel that it’s a pity that this is not still the case. The stuff would be valuable, rather than an unsavoury and often contentious nuisance; no doubt routine procedures would be established, for getting it to the tanners.

Eh I probably wouldn’t have done it myself. I haven’t had a dog in a while but when she was alive and I would take her on walks, I would carry her poo home, double bag and dispose in our own trash can. Always double bag it. But I too would feel weird about using someone else’s trash can. I will say that in our town the trash cans are privately owned, meaning the owner would have to clean it should something happen, however, that doesn’t necessarily play into my decision not to do it. I just wouldn’t want someone else’s dog’s poo in MY trash can. Gross.

I would prefer someone put their doggy bag (pun intended) in my trash bin vs. leaving it on the street/grass, but I do think it’s a touch rude. The city owns my trash/recycle bins, but my high (NJ & town) taxes pay for that service. Trash pickup is once a week, FTR.
Trash is picked up very early in the morning, with the can sitting on the street (via truck emptying trash can mechanically). I bring the cans back to the house as soon as I can, but if found that someone dumped doggy bags in there AFTER it’d been picked up, I’d be irate. Add to that, I live on the edge of a park that is popular with walkers and dog owners. There are several places where trash/recycle bins are placed, so there is no reason for someone to put the bags into residents’ trash cans. It is amazing, though, how many people leave Fido’s leavings in the grass, while there is a trash can 50 feet away!

Where I live the garbage man will not take anything “loose” that’s outside of a large bag, so a small bag, paper napkin etc means I have to dump out the whole bin and rebag everything. As I live on a busy street with no garbage cans I find garbage day extremely frustrating and I would not thank you for your pet deposits.

However, there are several factors that could make someone unhappy about this. I wouldn’t want someone putting anything in my trash if I didn’t know about it. The potential problems, some listed here in the comments, make this a bad practice.

Actual rules seem to differ depending on where the person lives, so to my mind, this is the only thing that matters: the OP did NOT live in the neighborhood. She said she lived in the country, and was visiting her daughter in town. Her daughter, who DOES live in the neighborhood, was horrified. The daughter’s a local, so she would know the culture/rules of her neighborhood, so in this scenario, I think the daughter’s right and the OP’s wrong, full stop. It doesn’t matter what would or would not be acceptable anywhere else; in this particular community, this wasn’t done and the OP should have listened to her daughter.

OK… we probably broke a dozens rules of etiquette.
We have a fenced in yard, giving onto an alley (back alley access to garages). Behind that fence , we do have a tiny back yard. A few years ago, we used to find a LOT of dog poo on our back alley yard. My husband could not mow the tiny yard from the amount of dog poo. It was THAT bad. While we were discussing what to do… the second neighbors down the alley, informed us that our back neighbor (directly behind us) was letting her dogs ( yes, 2) use our back mini yard. I got even. (yes, childish) I took a shovel and proceeded to fling the poo back into HER fenced yard. Funny , we NEVER had to do that since ;-). BTW when *I* dogsit friends’ pooches, a) I carry bags and b) I dispose of their poo in their owners garbage can.

Um, no thank you; please take your own poop home with you; don’t put it in my trash can as my own dog’s poop is quite enough. And no, much of US doesn’t have twice weekly trash pickup; rural areas have none at all and residents pay to dispose as needed, usually in purchased bags that are then placed in a can.

I fall on the side of take it home with you. If you are walking your dog you’ll wind up there eventually anyway. A dog walker in my neighborhood made me very angry about this very issue – he put the poo in my can on garbage day AFTER pickup, so it was there the whole week. I saw him do it and as tempted as I was to fling his poo after him, I just left it in the can. Stink was epic after a week.

Our local pick-up has wheelie bins rather than standard trash cans, and because of the way the trucks work, they will not take trash not in trash bags since loose trash tends to blow away when the lift tries to dump it. Someone just throwing their bag of doggie delight into a random bin is therefore not only getting another person into trouble by failing to keep all trash bagged, but also might therefore be popping a very unpleasant surprise on top of some poor trash collector’s person. You should keep your poop on your own property and don’t make your neighbors responsible for your dog’s business.